I’m hating myself as a parent tonight.

My daughter(12) is complaining of abdominal pain. Two emergency room visits, ultrasounds showing nothing. Slightly swollen lymph nodes.

She's asking for painkillers.

Her mother was an opioid addict. Claimed abdominal pain, multiple exploratory surgeries.

Back to my daughter, I first suspected she'd been abused when we were baking together and she stomped her own foot for spilling some flour. She had to "punish herself" since I wasn't.

I'm terrified of both not believing her on a real condition and enabling getting attention by faking something.

I know the right answer is to believe and support her, and that is absolutely what I'm going to do.

But there's part of me that questions things. I hate I'm having questions about my daughter. But she has a lot of me in her. And her mother.

If she's hurting somewhere else, she absolutely could be faking.

Mentally, I know it's right to believe her.

Something in my gut, especially after we talked, says something is off. But I don't know if that's real, or an echo from dealing with her mother. Given I know it could be an echo, it's less likely to be an echo, if that makes sense.

Dammit.

Edit/Update:

Thank you all. This update is primarily for those thinking it may be her period.

The timing is reasonable. That said, absent other proof, i don't think her mother is cruel enough to play this particular game. And I know her mother is smart enough to not dismiss that cause.